The high risks of Chinese players’ high-reward stakes in African mining

Name: Chinese foreign minister shores up ties with Arab League on final stop of Africa tour
Uploaded: 2023-03-28T22:00:22.000Z
Duration: 2 min 36 s
Description: Chinese foreign minister shores up ties with Arab League on final stop of Africa tour

Investors from China are tapping into the wealth of resources across the continent but in many regions, they are also in the path of violence

Thousands of Chinese firms are operating in Africa and the profit motive remains high, analyst says

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Jevans Nyabiage

Published: 6:00am, 29 Mar 2023Updated: 11:04am, 13 Apr 2023

The mining town of Bambari in the Central African Republic has not seen peace for many decades.

The town, about 380km (236 miles) east of the capital of Bangui, is rich in diamonds and gold, attracting a growing number of Chinese investors looking to cash in on the area’s wealth.

But it is also coveted by warring groups and earlier this month, the lawlessness killed nine Chinese people at the nearby Chimbolo gold mine.

The killings at the Chinese-owned mining site came just days after gunmen kidnapped three Chinese nationals in the country’s west near the border with Cameroon.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “severe punishment” for the perpetrators in Bambari but these incidents are not isolated to the CAR. Chinese investors with a high risk tolerance have fanned out across the continent in search of business deals and raw materials to fuel its industries, leaving themselves vulnerable to violence.

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Chinese foreign minister shores up ties with Arab League on final stop of Africa tour

The CAR exemplifies the natural resources “curse” – its mineral wealth has been blamed for exacerbating the country’s decades-long civil war. Authorities suspect the rebel group Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) of being behind the attack but the CPC has denied responsibility and accused Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of orchestrating the violence.